Android – Set Locale programmatically

You can force Android to hide the virtual keyboard using the InputMethodManager, calling hideSoftInputFromWindow, passing in the token of the window containing your focused view.

// Check if no view has focus:
View view = this.getCurrentFocus();
if (view != null) {  
    InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager)getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
    imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(view.getWindowToken(), 0);
}

This will force the keyboard to be hidden in all situations. In some cases, you will want to pass in InputMethodManager.HIDE_IMPLICIT_ONLY as the second parameter to ensure you only hide the keyboard when the user didn't explicitly force it to appear (by holding down the menu).

Note: If you want to do this in Kotlin, use: context?.getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE) as InputMethodManager

Kotlin Syntax

// Only runs if there is a view that is currently focused
this.currentFocus?.let { view ->
    val imm = getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE) as? InputMethodManager
    imm?.hideSoftInputFromWindow(view.windowToken, 0)
}

Through the original question is not exactly about the locale itself all other locale related questions are referencing to this one. That's why I wanted to clarify the issue here. I used this question as a starting point for my own locale switching code and found out that the method is not exactly correct. It works, but only until any configuration change (e.g. screen rotation) and only in that particular Activity. Playing with a code for a while I have ended up with the following approach:

I have extended android.app.Application and added the following code:

public class MyApplication extends Application
{
    private Locale locale = null;

    @Override
    public void onConfigurationChanged(Configuration newConfig)
    {
        super.onConfigurationChanged(newConfig);
        if (locale != null)
        {
            newConfig.locale = locale;
            Locale.setDefault(locale);
            getBaseContext().getResources().updateConfiguration(newConfig, getBaseContext().getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void onCreate()
    {
        super.onCreate();

        SharedPreferences settings = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(this);

        Configuration config = getBaseContext().getResources().getConfiguration();

        String lang = settings.getString(getString(R.string.pref_locale), "");
        if (! "".equals(lang) && ! config.locale.getLanguage().equals(lang))
        {
            locale = new Locale(lang);
            Locale.setDefault(locale);
            config.locale = locale;
            getBaseContext().getResources().updateConfiguration(config, getBaseContext().getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
        }
    }
}

This code ensures that every Activity will have custom locale set and it will not be reset on rotation and other events.

I have also spent a lot of time trying to make the preference change to be applied immediately but didn't succeed: the language changed correctly on Activity restart, but number formats and other locale properties were not applied until full application restart.

Changes to AndroidManifest.xml

Don't forget to add android:configChanges="layoutDirection|locale" to every activity at AndroidManifest, as well as the android:name=".MyApplication" to the <application> element.